American Cheese & Pickle

American Cheese & Pickle Sandwich

Construction

We all know that I make a study of British food. What we may not know, since I haven't written the post yet, is that one of my areas of concentration is sandwiches and another is pickle. As in branston pickle. The ease of obtaining a cheese and pickle sandwich is a never ending source of delight... When in the UK.

When in the US, we are more or less fucked. It's possible to import some branston, but it's far from common. The cheddar you can get is never quite right, nor is the bread. Sometimes I try, obsessively, to recreate the exact experience that I've had across the sea.

Sometimes, I give the fuck up. This is a recipe I developed in the kitchens of my old job. Cheese and Pickle with the most American of ingredients possible.

Since the only kind of pickled anything we have here is pickled cucumbers, dill chips are the obvious choice. Since the cheddar is never right anyway, we have some nice american cream cheese. Spreading cream cheese requires toast. This all makes sense.

The results are not unpleasant but they're not British either, like an english muffin. This is a tasty sandwich that makes me feel sad and out of place.

Coronation Chicken

Can I just say how much I love that I've been eating a coronation chicken derivative for the past 10 years and not even known it. Thanks Rakka!

I also love the story. Go read it.

Scotch Devils

Scotch Devil

Makings There be eggs Ready for the cooking

There's been a lot of build up. Probably too much. It's a scotch egg, made with those pickled "deviled" eggs that I've been talking about for two weeks. So it's a Scotch Deviled Egg, or a Scotch Devil for short.

Back to the salt thing I was talking about in the first post. I put half a tablespoon of salt in this whole thing, but it's still bursting with flavor.

Here's how it go:

Filling

5-6 "Deviled" Eggs

Meat part

1.25 pounds ground turkey

.5 tbs salt

1 tsp cayenne  pepper

1 tsp crushed red pepper

some ground pepper

2 tsp worcestershire sauce

1/4 tsp ginger powder

Coating

1 egg (beaten) for wash

breadcrumbs with cayenne pepper

Scotch Eggs are usually made with sausage meat, and you could do that here. I didn't have any. And I didn't have any sage, which would have helped. But it's ok, because lots of hot spicy spice!

The process is pretty obvious.

1. Mix up the Meat part.
2. Wrap up your eggs in it (I only had 5 because I used one to test my eggs).
3. Mix some cayenne into the bread crumbs
4. Roll the meated eggs, one at a time, in the egg then the bread crumbs.
5. Bake them at 400 degrees for about 30 minutes.

And they really do come out very tasty. The capsaicin hits first, then the vinegar from the pickled egg. Then the egg from egg. I dig it. I'll dig it again.

"Deviled" Eggs

"Deviled" Egg

Brown on the outside Here's a pile

Remember dem eggs we set ta picklin? Well, they sher did pickle up real good, I tell you what.

Seriously though, this is after a little less than a week on the shelf in the pantry. They went a bit rubbery on the outside, and I expect the'd be rubbery all the way through if I left them longer. All the spices turned them a medium brown.

Remember, these are supposed to be spicy. In fact, they're supposed to be a pickled version of deviled eggs.

But they spicy flavor was not that strong. Possibly because the spices settled out after the first day or so. I either need to figure out an emulsification strategy or an agitation strategy. Or give up on making this the spicy part.

The spicy part? Of what? Oh, wouldn't you like to know. But that's the next post.

In the mean time, let's talk about the recipe for these.

3/4 cup cider vinegar

1/4 cup malt vinegar

1/4 cup sugar

1 tbsp paprika

1 tbsp crushed red pepper

1/4 onion

1 jalapeño

6 eggs

Boil the eggies, let them cool, remove the shells. Put all the other stuff in a pot, boil it for a bit, let it cool. Put the eggs in a jar, put the juice in the jar, seal the jar. Leave it in a cool place for about a week. And I mean 'cool' temperature wise. It's not sufficient to leave it in the presence of the Fonz for a week.

Keep in mind, this recipe is a work in progress, but I'm pretty sure it won't kill you. But no promises.

It Smells Like Spicy Easter In Here

Deviling Eggs

Devil Spices The Ceremony Is About to Commence Joined

I had this idea, right. It's not going to be ready for some days, but I can't wait to start talking about it. Consider this a preview.

So here's my fundamental dilema. Point 1: My rickety old cardiovascular thingamy tends to pour on the psi. Point 2: A need for weird prepared foods is the very core of my being.

Overstated point 2 a bit. To be honest it's more like the D'' layer.

Anyway. The point is that 1 & 2 don't go together very well. This is because most prepared foods, weird or not, are basically just flavored salt.

One day last week I got a sandwich from sbux and noticed that it accounted for 47% of the recommended salt intake for the day. That sounds like something I'm making up. But I'm not. Not at all. So I think, maybe, before the blood just erupts from my temples, that I need to take charge of the whole show.

The solution to my dilema is simple, if not easy. I prepare my own ridiculous food (I know, you're shocked, right?) sans salt.

And lo, these spicy pickled eggs have no added salt. And probably they'll have some flavor. I dunno. I'm just winging this. I made the recipe up as I went, while looking at this.

We'll know in about a week. That's when the fun really begins. That's when we move on to phase 2. heeeee!

Shelved

Onigiri at BibimBap [Joomuk-bap]

BibimBap is in the spot formerly occupied by Bento Kudasai. The place has changed owners, names etc. several times in the past year or two. I used to be called Grab N Bowl, which I never went to because it was called Grab N Bowl. BibimBap is apparently new enough that nobody has interneted it yet. I'm not going to be the one. At least not today.

Anyway, I thought I'd stop in for a light breakfast. Onigiri breakfast.

spicy tuna, fried anchovy, crab meat

Yes, that's an anchovy's head. Fried Anchovy joomuk-bap. crab meat joomuk-bap spicy tuna joomuk-bap

This being a Korean place, I think it's probably more properly called joomukbob or joomuk-bap. And, indeed, these are not the triangles of rice with stuff in the middle that I was expecting.

Not that I'm complaining. These things were good.

Well, the crab and the spicy tuna were fantastic. The fried anchovy was just a bit much.

Because it was a giant ball of fried anchovies.

A. Giant. ball of fried anchovies.

Heads and all. Now, I like weird preserved fish things as much as the next man. But no. Don't think I'm having it again.

Other stuff, yeah. I'll go back for the other stuff.

Chocolate Orange Toasty

The best thing ever

cali style sweet orange marmalade ooooh yeah [smashes through wall]

Oh, Leffy done did it again.

Culinary history is happening right here. right now.

Your classic PB&J has many variations, but they all fall in to the larger "nut butter and sweet fruit preserves sandwich" category. So does this. It is the OM&N, the Orange Marmalade and Nutella sandwich.

It is made, as you can see, from California Style Sweet Orange marmalade, Nutella, and white toast. It goes together like a standard PB&J on toast. And it is the best thing ever.

I'm not even joking. It is literally and objectively the best thing ever to happen in the history of the universe. It even surpasses the Raspberry Jam and Nutella sandwich (not an easy feat).

You're welcome.